Finland Times

 

File picture of Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto. Photo Lehtikuva.

Experts of sustainable development and financing would gather in Espoo on Thursday for a two-day meeting on the financing of global sustainable development after the year 2015, said a press release of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

 

The meeting of experts is hosted by Ambassador Pertti Majanen, who serves as co-chair of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing together with Mansur Muhtar of Nigeria. 

 

The Committee's task is to produce a proposal for a strategy, extending to the year 2030, on the financing of work aimed at sustainable development. The proposal will be submitted to the UN Secretary-General in September.

 

"Issues pertaining to financing in the future play a key role in the preparation of the post-2015 global development agenda. Contents and financing go hand in hand," said International Development Minister Pekka Haavisto.

 

The event will focus in particular on new financing partnerships. For example, the role of the private sector is expected to be more prominent in the future. In order to mobilize the private sector, there is a need for mutually beneficial, innovative and creative partnerships, according to the press release.

 

"It is not primarily that we should come up with new money - but more a question of how existing money flows could support global sustainable development better. This work calls for creativity and courage to think differently than in the past - the task is not an easy one," Haavisto said.

 

The two-day event, organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Aalto University, will bring together about a hundred sustainable development and financing experts. 

Among the participants are representatives of Governments, the private sector and civil society from all continents.